Dog gets ready to play frisbee

Meet Jackson, an Australian Shepherd mix. What he does best is play with his frisbee, but he can also do some stuff that can be helpful around the house.


Jackson's owner explains how he trained him:

I started teaching him to get me beers from the fridge when he was young (about 10 months I think). He perfected it in about a month. All the other tricks are based on getting me a beer (i.e. opening/closing doors, picking things up, and placing different items in my hand).

So, it was basically 3 steps: open the fridge, bring me something from the fridge, and then close the fridge. First, I tied a sock to the fridge and rewarded him for even looking at it. That built up to him pulling on the sock and opening the door. Next, I rewarded him for picking something up with his mouth and then me taking it from him. Then I started hiding things on the bottom shelf of my refrigerator. That transitioned into him opening the fridge and putting things in my hand. And Finally, I got him to close the fridge by rewarding him for touching the fridge with his paws. He figured out how to close the door pretty quickly. This was the easiest step by far. We worked on it step by step for a couple weeks, and he was able to perfect it in about a month.

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